Having read about these the WHF, and having a Blu-Ray player that seldom gets used, I decided to import some of these, and have report the result is better than I thought possible. OK, I only bought 3 new classical discs from the Naxos range - The 4 Seasons, Chopin Piano Concerto No 1 and Mahler's 8th (forgot it was the one with all the singing in) . Silences are positively limpid, soundstage wider than I've ever heard it. It's like the pianist (playing Chopin) is there with you. As for detail, in the Chopin I swear you can hear the piano stool creaking during the difficult bits. The Vivaldi has an immediacy up with that of the seminal Jansen CD, but somehow with more space around it. Not just me who thought this, either. My girlfriend walked in and asked me what I'd changed in the system, it sounded so good. "It's almost like a 3D orchestra is in the room", she said.

These play on any Blu-ray player, and they come in Stereo and DTS (not sure what that is) mode. As far as I know there's no video component, apart from an on screen menu, but you can just put them straight into your Blu-ray player and press play.

I'm only sorry they've come so late on the scene. From what I've heard, they may be an advance on the regular CD, and I'm wondering how stunning the 5.1 DTS would sound.

Worth trying out, the format is genuinely impressive, particularly if you like classical.

I don't see the point of yet another audio disc format (with SACD already catering for HD), albeit one based on an existing video one. I firmly believe that the only discs being spun sooner rather than later will be vinyl.

Another problem is the most DACs won't handle DTS streams so the user is reliant on the analogue output from their BD player or down-sampling the digital output to 16bit 44.1k (CD quality). Please correct me if things have changed - I'd be delighted to be wrong! I don't think HDMI converters will output 24/96 let alone 24/192.

I don't see the point of yet another audio disc format (with SACD already catering for HD), albeit one based on an existing video one. I firmly believe that the only discs being spun sooner rather than later will be vinyl.

Another problem is the most DACs won't handle DTS streams so the user is reliant on the analogue output from their BD player or down-sampling the digital output to 16bit 44.1k (CD quality). Please correct me if things have changed - I'd be delighted to be wrong! I don't think HDMI converters will output 24/96 let alone 24/192.

As mentioned above, they come with a DTS and a stereo PCM mix, this can be output via coax to DAC. Downmix to PCM is standard on all Blu-ray players anyway, surely?

That patricia barber blu-ray i linked above is 24.96 and when played through coax out to my m-dac the m-dac shows 16/48 on its display and its hard to rip a blu-ray so for streaming i used a Sony digital recorder fed from the blu-rays analogue out and recorded at 24.96.:)

Who seems to have missed the point? Since your post followed mine, I was replying to the quoted text; the point being that most people consider their DACs to be better quality than their blu-ray players, and the PCM stream is 24/96.

It is what I am doing with the recent Hawkwind Warrior at the Edge of Time remasters, perhaps you might look those up.